How to break a habit that makes your life miserable: an exercise
I stumbled upon Thomas Oppong’s article, Why Eliminating Behaviors That Make You Miserable Can Make You Happier, which references a book by Randy J. Paterson, Ph.D., How to Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use. I thought it could be helpful to create an exercise to enable others to practice the valuable advice on how to break a habit that he offers:
Goal of the exercise: Uncover paths to happiness by identifying that which makes you unhappy and subsequently altering or eliminating them.
- List 5-10 things that you do daily that contribute to an unhappy feeling.
As you list them. Try to pay attention to your feelings. Notice the many things that change your mood from good to worse.
- For each one, find ways to either avoid them or find solutions. Resolve those issues or problems that stand in the way of your happiness.
- Make at least one SMART* commitment
*SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound
If you are interested in this habit change and self-improvement, please take a look at these other topics.
